TOP 100 OILERS: RISTO SILTANEN (48)
7 years ago
As the Edmonton Oilers of today continue to search for a right-handed defenceman who can move the puck and generate points from the back end, I can’t help but hop into my hockey time machine and think how perfect a fit diminutive Finn Risto Siltanen would be now, just as he was when the Oilers broke into the NHL in 1979-80.
It was a different era of course, and younger fans might not even remember Siltanen, who toiled for the Oilers before the Stanley Cup parades on Jasper Avenue began. Back then, before Paul Coffey had fully developed into one of the greatest offensive defencemen the NHL has ever seen, it was the pint-sized Siltanen who carried the mail on the back end for the Oilers and, mercy, did he deliver.
Risto Siltanen
Defense
Born Oct 31 1958 — Mantta, Finland
Height 5.09 — Weight 180 [175 cm/82 kg]
Drafted by St. Louis Blues
Round 11 #173 overall 1978 NHL Amateur Draft
BY THE NUMBERS
Season | Age | Tm | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | S | S% |
1978-79 | 20 | 20 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 36 | 8.3 | |
1979-80 | 21 | 64 | 6 | 29 | 35 | -9 | 26 | 116 | 5.2 | |
1980-81 | 22 | 79 | 17 | 36 | 53 | 5 | 54 | 209 | 8.1 | |
1981-82 | 23 | 63 | 15 | 48 | 63 | 13 | 26 | 143 | 10.5 | |
1982-83 | 24 | 74 | 5 | 25 | 30 | -39 | 28 | 155 | 3.2 | |
1983-84 | 25 | 75 | 15 | 38 | 53 | -21 | 34 | 163 | 9.2 | |
1984-85 | 26 | 76 | 12 | 33 | 45 | -24 | 30 | 174 | 6.9 | |
1985-86 | 27 | TOT | 65 | 10 | 27 | 37 | 1 | 36 | 179 | 5.6 |
1985-86 | 27 | 52 | 8 | 22 | 30 | 2 | 30 | 126 | 6.3 | |
1985-86 | 27 | 13 | 2 | 5 | 7 | -1 | 6 | 53 | 3.8 | |
1986-87 | 28 | 66 | 10 | 29 | 39 | -2 | 32 | 130 | 7.7 | |
4 yrs | HAR | 277 | 40 | 118 | 158 | -82 | 122 | 618 | 6.5 | |
3 yrs | EDM | 206 | 38 | 113 | 151 | 9 | 106 | 468 | 8.1 | |
2 yrs | QUE | 79 | 12 | 34 | 46 | -3 | 38 | 183 | 6.6 | |
1 yr | EDO | 20 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 36 | 8.3 | |
Career | 562 | 90 | 265 | 355 | -76 | 266 | 1269 | 7.1 | ||
Career | 20 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 36 | 8.3 |
PLAYOFFS
Season | Age | Tm | Lg | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | S | S% |
1978-79 | 20 | 11 | 0 | 9 | 9 | 6 | 4 | ||||
1979-80 | 21 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |||||
1980-81 | 22 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 8 | |||||
1981-82 | 23 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 10 | |||||
1985-86 | 27 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -3 | 2 | 9 | 0.0 | ||
1986-87 | 28 | 13 | 1 | 9 | 10 | -4 | 8 | 26 | 3.8 | ||
Career | NHL | 32 | 6 | 12 | 18 | -7 | 30 | 35 | 2.9 | ||
Career | WHA | 11 | 0 | 9 | 9 | 6 | 4 |
NOTABLE
At five-foot-nine and only about 160 pounds when he was signed as a free agent by the WHA Oilers in 1978, Siltanen was one of the smallest players in the league when he made his NHL debut with the Oilers to start the 1979-80 season. It was an era when there was still a premium on size and ruffians still dotted every roster, so it wasn’t a time when you’d expect a little man to have much success. Siltanen was one of the exceptions.
What Siltanen brought to the table was hockey IQ, a big shot and the ability to lug the puck out of his own zone and get it to a teenaged Wayne Gretzky and winger Blair MacDonald. After getting his feet wet in 20 games with the WHA Oilers, Siltanen saw action in 64 games with the Oilers in their first NHL season, producing 6-29-35 — two points more than a 19-year-old forward named Mark Messier.
Siltanen was just 22 in his second season with the emerging Oilers when he tallied 17-36-53, leading a blueline that included a 19-year-old Coffey in scoring (Coffey had 9-23-32). Coffey’s coming out party would begin in the 1981 playoffs, a post-season that started with a shocking 3-0 sweep of the Montreal Canadiens, but it was Siltanen who got the Game 2 winner in a series nobody thought they had a chance in.
THE STORY
Fresh from upsetting the Habs before losing to the New York Islanders in the second round of the 1981 playoffs, the Oilers had served notice they’d be a team to be reckoned with. They were. The Oilers won the Smyth Division with 111 points in 1981-82. Gretzky had 212 points and Coffey had 89, leaving him behind only the Great One and Glenn Anderson in team scoring.
That campaign would be Siltanen’s final and best season with the Oilers. He had 63 points, including 15 goals, in just 63 games. Coffey was coach Glen Sather’s go-to guy, but Siltanen gave him that second option. Even allowing for the scoring rates of the day, Coffey and Siltanen combining for 152 points behind a prolific group of forwards was an embarrassment of riches.
All told, Siltanen had 151 points in 206 games with the Oilers before he was traded to the Hartford Whalers with the rights to Brent Loney for Ken Linseman and Don Nackbaur in August of 1982. The only thing missing from Siltanen’s tenure in Edmonton was a Stanley Cup ring. Siltanen was a terrific player here, the kind the Oilers of today could surely use.
This series will look at the top 100 Edmonton Oilers from the NHL era 1979-80 to 2014-15, starting with 100 and working up.
Listen to Robin Brownlee Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the Jason Gregor Show on TSN 1260.
PREVIOUSLY:
Recent articles from Robin Brownlee
